Oscars 2016: The Terrorism.

On Sunday (28/2/16) night the 88th Academy Awards - The Oscars - were held in Hollywood, California.

As part of the show Lady Gaga appeared on stage to perform the song; "Till It Happens To You" as part of the "It's On Us" campaign against rape and other forms of sexual violence. She was introduced by Vice President of the United States Joe Biden.

As I mentioned yesterday amid around 9000 other words I think the Academy originally intended to embarrass Biden by handing the Best Foreign Feature trophy to the French movie "Mustang" right before he took to the stage.

Mustang is a film that is all about rape and sexual violence in Turkey - particularly the rise in rape and sexual violence that has occurred under the rule of Turkish President/Prime Minister/Emperor Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Biden is currently the US' diplomatic point man on Turkey. Despite frequently claiming to be opposed to rape and sexual violence Biden has not yet seen fit to raise the issue with Erdogan.

In an effort to save Biden's blushes the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) played up the threat of a terrorist attack on the Oscars in order to pressure the Academy into backing down.

However caught in the middle as police officers often find themselves the DHS also seemed to be putting pressure on the Obama administration to do more to reduce the threat of terrorism from both the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and associated groups and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) group. Particularly where the two overlap.

So on Thursday (25/2/16) there was a shooting spree in Hesston, Kansas. The state of Kansas is synonymous with the movie "The Wizard of Oz." By bringing the issue of racist lynchings into the mainstream as far back as 1939 The Wizard of Oz has frequently been cited as an example of why perhaps those accusing the Oscars of racism are perhaps choosing the wrong target.

I think this year's trend was actually started by Will Smith whose wife - Jada Pinkett-Smith - was one of the lead voices accusing the Oscars of racism. Asked about the race issue on a UK press tour to promote his movie "Concussion" Smith talked about how he hoped people could move beyond the issue and build a sort of rainbow industry.

Proving why he's qualified to be a member of the Academy Smith was essentially using the interviews to sing; "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." The title song to The Wizard of Oz.

The Hesston spree centred about "Excel Industries." The Oscars are sort of the centre of excellence for the movie industry. With Cedric Larry Ford the gunman who was killed in the course of the spree being black this was obviously intended to highlight concerns that a disgruntled black person might try and shoot up the 'racist' Oscars.

The main weapon that Ford used was an AK-47 assault rifle. Although I've personally always had more of an affinity with the AR-18 the AK-47 has become the iconic terrorist weapon. As such it raised the possibility that not only might a BLM supporter attack the Oscars but an ISIL supporter might too.

Ford was a multiple felon and the shooting seems to have been triggered by a domestic violence protection order being served on him. As such he should not have been able to pass a background check to obtain the weapons used either now or under Obama's enhanced background check system. However as with the San Bernardino terror attack and the Newtown massacre Ford didn't undergo any sort of background check. He simply got someone to illegally act as a straw purchaser to buy the weapons for him.

The spree nature of the shooting was a reference to the previous Saturday (22/2/16) shooting spree in Kalamazoo, Michigan. This was primarily the US laying down the equivalent of covering fire for US Secretary of State John Kerry's trip to Jordan the following day. The main objective seemed to be to disassociate the US from my support for the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and the associated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF/QSD) who are currently trying to fight ISIL.

For the first time ever this year Jordan also had a movie in the Best Foreign Feature category called "Theeb." It seems the Obama administration have completely missed the point of that movie.

On Saturday (27/2/16) there was a stabbing incident involving members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and BLM in Anaheim, California. BLM seem to be under the impression that it is the Oscars who are in fact the California branch of the KKK.

Now the dust has settled it seems that BLM violently attacked the KKK forcing them to defend themselves stabbing several members of BLM in the process. This obviously highlights the fact that civil rights protections such as free speech and due process almost apply doubly to the people whom you don't like. A fact that sadly seems to be utterly beyond BLM and the Obama administration.

However in the initial moments of the incident it invoke memories of all those lone-wolf stabbing attacks that have occurred in Israel, France, the UK and Ohio, US. It is sadly a very long list. Somehow I don't think a lunatic with a machete running along the red carpet is quite the visual the Academy were hoping for.

On Saturday (27/2/16) night/Sunday (28/2/16) morning a female police officer was shot and killed on a domestic violence call in Virginia. The surprising detail is that the alleged shooter was a US Army Staff Sergeant assigned to the Pentagon. The message there seems to be that while it is the civilian police have to protect the Oscars and the wider US public from terrorism the military and those in Washington D.C could be doing a lot more to defeat terrorism overseas.

With Biden ordering that Mustang be denied its Oscar the Best Supporting Actor trophy had to go to Mark Rylance for his portrayal of Rudolf Abel in the movie "Bridge of Spies." In the early part of that movie Abel is of course a metaphor for alleged Charleston Church shooter Dylann Roof.

Right before the Oscars ceremony began there was another shooting at a black Church. This time in Ohio. However because the shooter was black no-one seemed that interested. Aside from the reference to Dylann Roof the Ohio location also referenced the February 11th (11/2/16) terror attack at the Nazareth restaurant in Columbus, Ohio. In case you didn't hear about the Ohio Church shooting there was a very small school shooting in Ohio yesterday.

18:10 on 1/3/15 (UK date).

Edited at round 16:45 on 2/3/16 (UK date) to add;

In what has been a rather slow burning story on Wednesday (24/2/16) three young Sudanese men were found to have been every professionally killed at a deserted house in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

One of the main accusations of racism levelled against the Oscars was the failure to nominate Idris Elba for the movie "Beasts of No Nation" which tells the story of child soldiers in Ghana. The people who complained about that were clearly not into movies enough to have seen the 2008 genre defining classic "Johnny Mad Dog." They were also far too pretentious to enjoy the US TV Show "NCIS: Los Angeles" starring "Oz" alum LL Cool J.

One of the recurring storylines in the first two season of NCIS: Los Angeles is LL Cool J's character's attempts to mentor a young Sudanese refugee. That character is one of the child soldiers from Sudan's various civil wars that are sometimes referred to as; "The Lost Boys of Sudan." Initially LL Cool J's character stops the boy being caught up into the world of gangs and drugs. Unfortunately he is not able to prevent him being recruited by an Islamist terror group that eventually take him to Yemen.

Due to the link with the NCIS tribe I have to say that I'm surprised that the movie "The 33" wasn't put in the mix at this years Oscars with a couple of nominations. After all it seems unlikely that this Hispanic dominated Hollywood movie would have been commissioned without the attention given to and earned by Alejandro G. Iñárritu.

One of the wilder claims made by BLM is that the US police have adopted a shoot-to-kill policy against black people. 

During the Northern Irish Troubles the British government did operate a shoot-to-kill policy. This meant that members of the elite SAS Special Forces unit of the British Army were tasked with hunting down and executing Republican terrorists even if they were British citizens. The most famous of these incidents occurred on Gibraltar in 1988 and the story was told in the documentary "Death on the Rock" which can be found on YouTube.

There is very little difference between the British shoot-to-kill policy and how Britain and others deal with ISIL fighters - particularly in terms of drone strikes.

So when people like me hear about things like the events in Forth Wayne our first thought is either drug crime or something out of a James Bond movie.

However it seems that as has been their position over the last couple of years CNN's first instinct is to scream; "Racism!!!" and "Islamaphobia!!!!"

On Saturday (27/2/16) night/Sunday (28/2/16) police were called to a fight between members of Salt Lake City, Utah's large Somali refugee community. They were attacked by a young boy with a metal bar who they shot and severely wounded. As has become the routine this prompted anti-police riots.

The intention seemed to be to make the point that within black Muslim communities the lies of BLM backed up by media outlets such as CNN are combining with the propaganda of ISIL and associated groups to radicalise lone-wolf terrorists. The hope being that common sense prevails before more formal action has to be taken because distributing terrorist propaganda is most certainly not protected by the 1st Amendment.

This issue of orphan refugees and child soldiers is becoming increasingly relevant to the war in Syria. After all ISIL are extremely proud of their use of child soldiers which they refer to as; "The Cubs of the Caliphate." 

Plus if a 12 year old boy was orphaned in the early stages back in 2011 they will now be 17 years old having gone through those critical teenage years without any adult supervision. So where in the early-2000's we were talking about the Lost Boys of Sudan we're now talking about the Lost Boys of Syria.

Somalia actually provides an interesting case study into the problem. After years of war the Islamic Courts Union was formed in 2006 in an effect to bring some level of stability to the country. One of the main things they did was set up Al-Shabaab - literally "The Youth" - to provide some level of mentoring to the nation's lost boys and child soldiers. 

Unfortunately they had the word "Islamic" in their title so US President George W. Bush ordered them destroyed.

The fact that in it's new form Al-Shabaab have spent the weekend carrying out a series of attacks wrongly celebrating the anointment of Sheikh Salman Bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa as FIFA President should show you that we are now dealing with a very different beast.

Finally on the Oscars fashion the big trend for women this year seems to have been plunging necklines and lots of exposed cleavage. This seems to have been done in tribute to Charlotte Rampling and her performance in "The Night Porter."

In the main publicity shot for that movie Rampling is shown wearing nothing but a Nazi officer's cap, leather S&M-type gloves and a pair of men's trousers. The braces or suspenders of the trousers are positioned to cover up her otherwise naked breasts.

I think the most obvious example was Olivia Wilde who of course got her big break in the US TV Show "House." The main star of that show - Hugh Laurie - is currently appearing in the UK TV Show "The Night Manager." Although the storylines couldn't be more different I think the similarity between the titles means that the Night Manager has been scheduled so it will climb the Twitter trend lists to remind people of The Night Porter in the run-up to the Oscars.

I was also impressed by Miranda Kerr's dress. Rather then going for the obvious vertical strips her breasts were covered by interconnected squares of fabric making for a more subtle reference. Her dress was also red which invoked the red of the Nazi flag.